Game Review

Review

Given the popularity of the Super Mario Bros. series at the time of the Game Boy's release, it came as no real surprise that Nintendo would release a Super Mario title for its brand new portable game system. Now the 3DS eShop is available, it makes just...

Have this on my 82 (or so) in 1 GB cartridge, and this was probably the best game in it. Loved it so much, and I thought it was difficult and was proud to be able to beat it. Will wait for the color ones that I didn't play. wasn't this playable in GBC with added colors? I can't try it because the pirated one doesn't work on GBC.

While the game's graphics look pretty dated, even by Gameboy standards, the game is actually still not bad. It's kinda short, (only 4 worlds, but admittedly the levels seem longer then they actually are, in a good way) but luckly you'll get a harder mode once you beat the game. (With more enemies basically.) The soundtrack is also quite good for 8-bit standards, and one of more unique ones in the Mario series. I have many fond memories hearing the Muda stage (World 2) especially.The game is also worth buying/playing just for the awesome submarine/airplane "shooter" stages, (only 2 of wich, but still fun) wich mix in a few things from the normal Mario stages to. (Such as getting mushrooms & star power ups, and shooting blocks to break them, and see what's hidden within.) I'd love to see a Mario game bring back the Sky Pop airplane again, but I don't think it'll ever happen. (Seeing as how the SML games weren't made by Miyamoto or the rest of the Mario team, but more-so by Gumpei Yokoi, and the Gameboy system team.)

I'll say something nice first: the music is incredible, and it'll get stuck in my head at random times. The storyline is so bizarre, it's surreal: saving Sarasaland from the "mystery alien" Tatanga? Really? I guess it's really no weirder than the rest of the game, where a Koopa strapped with a suicide vest is about the closest you get to the main series. I'm surprised no one ever mentions the controls in SML. They're so loose it makes the game artificially difficult, and if you're like me, you'll die a lot of cheap deaths before you learn how to compensate for Mario's movements. That said, for some reason, it's still compulsively playable.

Being one of the kids who had a Gameboy long before they had a Nintendo console, this was my first Mario game and probably was for many others. I played it a ridiculous amount. Looking back? Not bad. Not good, but not bad.

If this at times seems like a passable facsimile of a Super Mario game, that's because it was the first major Mario production to not involve Shigeru Miyamoto. Super Mario Land was executive produced by Gunpei Yokoi, and honestly you could do a lot worse. Most of the important elements are present: the legendary plumber, coins, mushrooms, flowers, stars, a general movement towards the right. Conspicuously absent: Bowser and Peach, and Toad for that matter.